[Quote No.42829] Need Area: Friends > General "The origin of our passions, the root and spring of all the rest, the only one which is born with man, which never leaves him as long as he lives, is self-love [Adam Smith’s ‘self-interest’]; this passion is primitive, instinctive, it precedes all the rest, which are in a sense only modifications of it. In this sense, if you like, they are all natural." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712 – 1778), Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. As quoted in his book, ‘Emile: Or, On Education’, (1762).Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42840] Need Area: Friends > General "[Individualism, human individual uniqueness and therefore the need for as much individual freedom, consistent with the same for others as possible, in any social setting in society:] I know my heart, and have studied mankind; I am not made like any one I have been acquainted with, perhaps like no one in existence; if not better, I at least claim originality... [Variant translations of the original French: ‘I may not be better than other people, but at least I am different’ and ‘If I am not better, at least I am different’.]" - Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712 – 1778), Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. As quoted in his book, ‘Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’ (1770, published 1782).Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42889] Need Area: Friends > General "[Politics, Conflict and War:] The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest [and might is not necessarily right, even when it is the 'might' from the most numerous vote in a democracy. For example a majority could vote to enslave the minority and steal and redistribute their wealth, but that would not make it right or moral. This is a serious problem with Jeremy Bentham's philosophy of Utilitarianism and its Utilitarian ethics - i.e. 'the greatest good for the greatest number', which to be moral must be tempered with unalienable human rights that not even a majority can deny to even one human]." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712 – 1778), Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42897] Need Area: Friends > General "Virtue [ethics and morality] is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves [and our desires to get our own way and what is in our self-interest, even if we have to treat others with force, coercion and fraud that we would not others to use on us. That is why - to counter this lack of moral means to our desired end - nearly all religions and ethical systems have some reference to the Golden Rule of ethics, namely 'Treat others as you would like to be treated.']" - Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712 – 1778), Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42898] Need Area: Friends > General "War then, is a relation — not between man and man: but between state [i.e. politicians and government, like Kings, Queens and courtiers of old] and state [i.e. politicians and government, like Kings, Queens and courtiers of old]; and [common] individuals are enemies only accidentally: not as men, nor even as citizens: but as soldiers; not as members of their country, but as its defenders [and, in the despicable case of immoral (due to it being forced, coerced and non-voluntary) miltary conscription, as its tools, its possessions, its slaves]." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712 – 1778), Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42908] Need Area: Friends > General "[There is always a danger to the middle classes and the wealthy when people in a society are so poor that they are hungry, especially if their numbers are large and the fact and visibility of the wealth discrepancy is obvious and frequent. Society’s law and order is then likely to break down and people desperate to survive, as well as those just envious or greedy, will disregard others’ needs and rights and society’s laws and use force to obtain the necessities, among other things, that they need, in order to survive, or prosper. At these times it is useful to remember that...] When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich!! [This is the dystopian worst case scenario of the mutual benefit that living in societies under a social contract promises. To avoid that, amongst other objectives, social, economic and political philosophies and structures have evolved over history and geography ranging: from strong central government power and freedom through communal property rights, for example communism, to strong individual power and freedom from strict private property rights, for example laissez faire (free market) capitalism; from government tax and redistribution policies to opportunities for education, business set-up capital and free-markets that promote voluntary exchange in order to meet each other’s needs and desires.] [This quote about eating the rich contrasts with another famous quote of Rousseau’s about eating that has been used by the poor and hungry, and those purporting to represent their interests, to express their belief about the way the wealthy regard the poor and hungry’s plight, fairly or unfairly: ‘I remembered the way out suggested by a great princess when told that the peasants had no bread: ‘Well, let them eat cake’. It has also been translated in a longer form as ‘At length I recollected the thoughtless saying of a great princess, who, on being informed that the country people had no bread, replied, ‘Then let them eat cake!’ In the original French - ‘Qu'ils mangent de la brioche’. This statement has usually come to be attributed to Marie Antoinette, but it was written in 1766, when Marie Antoinette was 10 and still 4 years away from her marriage to Louis XVI of France, and is an account of events of 1740, before she was born. It also implies the phrase had been long known before that time. As quoted in his book, ‘Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’ (1770, published 1782).]" - Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712 – 1778), Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. Attributed to Rousseau as being from a ‘Speech at the commune on the 14th of October’ in ‘The History of the French Revolution’ by M. A. Thiers. Translated, with notes and illustrations from the most authentic sources, by Frederick Shoberl., Thiers, Adolphe, 1797-1877., page 359. Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42911] Need Area: Friends > General "[Some philosophers - for example Stephen Hicks in ‘Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault’ (2004), Robert O. Paxton in ‘Five Stages of Fascism’, published in ‘The Journal of Modern History’, Vol 70 no. 1 (March, 1998) and Bertrand Russell in ‘A History of Western Philosophy’ (1945) - have said Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778) and his socio-political theories about nationalism and socialism laid some of the philosophical foundation for Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party’s National Socialism and Benito Mussolini’s Italian Fascism. For example:] It is unnatural for a [democratic] majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712 – 1778), Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42912] Need Area: Friends > General "[Karl] Marx [(1818 –1883), the ‘Father of Communism’, later reconceived by Joseph Stalin as ‘Stalinism’], like [Jean-Jacques] Rousseau [(1712-1778), an advocate of socialism and nationalism, later reconceived by Adolf Hitler as the Nazi Party’s philosophy of National Socialism and influencing Benito Mussolini’s Italian Fascism] before him, believed that men are good and made bad only by bad social systems. Unlike Rousseau, he [Marx] believed that these systems arise from historical necessity. It occurred neither to Marx nor to Rousseau - as it did to [James] Madison [the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817), co-author, with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, of the ‘Federalist Papers’, and traditionally regarded as the ‘Father of the United States Constitution’] - that bad men corrupt good systems just as often as vice versa [and therefore any socio-economic political system and 'social contract' must be so arranged that government powers are strictly limited, by checks and balances between the Executive, Congress - Senate and House of Representatives - and the Supreme Court, not to mention the Federation of decentralised state powers, in the case of the United States, for when a bad person or group inevitably gets involved or even in charge of it, so the damage they can do to the society is also strictly limited]." - Ernest Van Den HaagQuote in ‘Marxism as Pseudo-Science,’ Reason Papers No. 12 (Spring 1987) pp. 26-32.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42913] Need Area: Friends > General "The first great frontal assault on the Enlightenment was launched by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)[Franco-Swiss philosopher whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism]. Rousseau has a well-deserved reputation as the bad boy of eighteenth century French philosophy. In the context of Enlightenment intellectual culture, Rousseau’s was a major dissenting voice. He was an admirer of all things Spartan — the Sparta of militaristic and feudal communalism — and a despiser of all things Athenian — the classical Athens of commerce, cosmopolitanism, and the high arts. Civilization is thoroughly corrupting, Rousseau argued — not only the oppressive feudal system of eighteenth-century France with its decadent and parasitical aristocracy, but also its Enlightenment alternative with its exaltation of reason, property, the arts and sciences. Name a dominant feature of the Enlightenment, and Rousseau was against it." - Stephen HicksPhilosopher. Quote from ‘Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault’ (2004), Tempe, AZ: Scholargy Press, p. 92.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42915] Need Area: Friends > General "If we prefer to trace a lineage [of fascist ideology, including Hitler's National Socialist 'Nazi' Party and Mussolini's National Fascist Party] within the [political] Left, drawing on the Enlightenment's own perception that individual liberty can undermine community, some have gone back as far as [Jean-Jacques] Rousseau [the Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism]." - Robert O. PaxtonQuote from the article, 'Five Stages of Fascism', published in 'The Journal of Modern History', Vol 70 no. 1 (March, 1998).Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42916] Need Area: Friends > General "[Adolf] Hitler [and his National Socialist ‘Nazi’ Party] is an outcome of [Jean-Jacques] Rousseau [the Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism]." - Bertrand Russell(1872 – 1970), famous British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound sense. Quote from his book, ‘A History of Western Philosophy’, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945, p. 685.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42929] Need Area: Friends > General "[The following article extracts will help give a general overview to help understand nation states, government and politics:] With the famous phrase, ‘man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains,’ [Jean-Jacques] Rousseau [the Franco-Swiss philosopher whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism, in his famous book, 'The Social Contract', published in 1762] asserts that modern states repress the physical freedom that is our birthright, and do nothing to secure the civil freedom for the sake of which we enter into civil society. Legitimate political authority, he suggests, comes only from a social contract [a Constitution] agreed upon by all citizens for their mutual preservation.
Rousseau calls the collective grouping of all citizens the ‘sovereign,’ and claims that it should be considered in many ways to be like an individual person. While each individual has a particular will that aims for his own best interest, the sovereign expresses the general will that aims for the common good. The sovereign only has authority over matters that are of public concern, but in this domain its authority is absolute: Rousseau recommends the death penalty for those who violate the social contract.
The general will finds its clearest expression in the general and abstract laws of the state, which are created early in that state's life by an impartial, non-citizen lawgiver. All laws must ensure liberty and equality [of treatment or outcome as it can’t do both as they are mutually exclusive]: beyond that, they may vary depending on local circumstances.
While the sovereign exercises legislative power by means of the laws, states also need a government to exercise executive power, carrying out day-to-day business. There are many different forms of government, but they can roughly be divided into democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy, depending on their size. [Later social, economic and political theorists developed other forms of government, like laissez faire, free market capitalism, at its libertarian extreme, as anarco-capitalism, where even the government authority is provided by competitive, voluntary groups to the much less individual focused and more government focused power systems like socialism, communism and fascism.] Monarchy is the strongest form of government, and is best suited to large populations and hot climates. While different states are suited to different forms of government, Rousseau maintains that aristocracies tend to be the most stable.
The government is distinct from the sovereign, and the two are almost always in friction. This friction will ultimately destroy the state, but healthy states can last many centuries before they dissolve.
The people exercise their sovereignty by meeting in regular, periodic assemblies. It is often difficult to persuade all citizens to attend these assemblies, but attendance is essential to the well-being of the state. When citizens elect representatives or try to buy their way out of public service, the general will shall not be heard and the state will become endangered. When voting in assemblies, people should not vote for what they want personally, but for what they believe is the general will. In a healthy state, the results of these votes should approach unanimity. To prove that even large states can assemble all their citizens, Rousseau takes the example of the Roman republic and its ‘comitia’ [i.e. ‘committee’, which was an assembly of all Roman citizens].
Rousseau recommends the establishment of a tribunate [the office, function, or term of office of a tribune] to mediate between government and sovereign and government and people. In cases of emergency, brief dictatorships may be necessary. The role of the censor's office is to voice public opinion.
While everyone should be free to observe their personal beliefs in private, Rousseau suggests that the state also require all citizens to observe a public religion that encourages good citizenship.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was active at the height of the French Enlightenment. Thinkers such as Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert headed a movement that placed supreme faith on the powers of reason. They were disdainful of religion or blind faith of any kind, believing that reason and knowledge could slowly bring about the betterment of humankind. Diderot and d'Alembert undertook the editorship of the ‘Encyclopedie’, the crowning glory of the Enlightenment, which was meant to serve as a record of all human knowledge collected to date.
Rousseau was initially friends with the other Enlightenment figures, and contributed several articles (mostly on music) to the ‘Encyclopedie’. However, he did not share their faith in reason or human progress, and intellectual and temperamental differences increasingly drew them apart.
Rousseau's political thought was primarily influenced by two groups. First, there is the voluntarist tradition of Hobbes, Pufendorf, and Grotius, who support absolute monarchy. They argue that only by entering into society and swearing absolute allegiance to a king can people escape the depravity and brutality of a life in the wild. Second, there is the liberal tradition of Locke and Montesquieu, who argue that society exists in order to protect certain inalienable rights of its citizens.
While Rousseau draws ideas from both traditions, he also disagrees with both in significant ways. He is more favorably inclined toward the ancient Greeks and Romans, and often refers to Sparta or Rome when looking for an example of a healthy state. The societies of antiquity were characterized by a strong civic spirit, where citizenship was considered not only an honor but a defining characteristic of who one was. The influence of such thinking pervades [his book] ‘The Social Contract’, and we feel especially the influence of Aristotle's [book] ‘Politics’.
When it was first published in 1762, ‘The Social Contract’ was met with outrage and censorship. Rousseau became a wanted man both in France and in his native Geneva. However, thirty-two years later, in 1794, after the French Revolution his remains were transported to the Pantheon in Paris and he was buried as a national hero. ‘The Social Contract’ was the foremost influence on the intellectual development of the French Revolution, and that stormy period in history is our best example of Rousseau's ideas put into practice. It is not fair to blame the Reign of Terror and the many disasters of the Revolution on Rousseau, but his influence was certainly felt throughout." - SparkNotes EditorsSparkNotes Editors. (n.d.). SparkNote on The Social Contract. Retrieved June 14, 2012, from http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/socialcontract/Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42930] Need Area: Friends > General "[The following article on the idea of the ‘Social Contract' will give a general overview to help understand nation states, government and politics:]
---Social Contract:
The ‘social contract’ or ‘political contract’ is an intellectual construct that typically addresses two questions, first, that of the origin of society, and second, the question of the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. [‘For the name social contract (or original contract) often covers two different kinds of contract, and, in tracing the evolution of the theory, it is well to distinguish them. Both were current in the seventeenth century and both can be discovered in Greek political thought. ... [The first] generally involved some theory of the origin of the state. The second form of social contract may be more accurately called the contract of government, or the contract of submission.... Generally, it has nothing to do with the origins of society, but, presupposing a society already formed, it purports to define the terms on which that society is to be governed [i.e. Like the ‘United States of America’s Constitution’]: the people have made a contract with their ruler which determines their relations with him. They promise him obedience, while he promises his protection and good government. While he keeps his part of the bargain, they must keep theirs, but if he misgoverns the contract is broken and allegiance is at an end.’ J. W. Gough, ‘The Social Contract’ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936), pp. 2–3. Modern revivals of social contract theories have not been as concerned with the origin of the state.] Social contract arguments typically posit that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the ruler or magistrate (or to the decision of a majority [for example in a democracy]), in exchange for protection of their natural rights. The question of the relation between natural and legal rights, therefore, is often an aspect of social contract theory.
Although the antecedents of social contract theory are found in antiquity, in Greek and Stoic philosophy and Roman and Canon Law, as well as in the Biblical idea of the covenant, the heyday of the social contract was the mid-seventeenth and to early nineteenth centuries, when it emerged as the leading doctrine of political legitimacy. The starting point for most social contract theories is a heuristic examination of the human condition absent from any political order that Thomas Hobbes termed the ‘state of nature‘. In this condition, individuals' actions are bound only by their personal power and conscience. From this shared starting point social contract theorists seek to demonstrate, in different ways, why a rational individual would voluntarily consent to give up his or her natural freedom to obtain the benefits of political order.
Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes (1651), Samuel Pufendorf (1673), John Locke (1689), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) are among the most prominent of seventeenth and eighteenth-century theorists of social contract and natural rights. Each solved the problem of political authority in different ways. Grotius posited that individual human beings had natural rights; Hobbes asserted that men consent to abdicate their rights in favor of the absolute authority of government (whether monarchial or parliamentary); Pufendorf disputed Hobbes's equation of a state of nature with war; Locke believed that natural rights were inalienable [unalienable], and that the rule of God, as interpreted by the individual conscience, therefore superseded government authority; and Rousseau believed that democracy (self-rule) was the best way of ensuring the general welfare while maintaining individual freedom under the rule of law. The Lockean concept of the social contract was invoked in the ‘United States Declaration of Independence’. Social contract theories were eclipsed in the nineteenth century in favor of utilitarianism, Hegelianism, and Marxism, and were revived in the twentieth, notably in the form of a thought experiment by John Rawls.
---Overview:
Thomas Hobbes famously said that in a ‘state of nature’ human life would be ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’. In the absence of political order and law, everyone would have unlimited natural freedoms, including the ‘right to all things’ and thus the freedom to plunder, rape, and murder; there would be an endless ‘war of all against all’ (‘bellum omnium contra omnes’). To avoid this, free men contract with each other to establish political community i.e. civil society through a social contract in which they all gain security [the most important need in Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs] in return for subjecting themselves to an absolute Sovereign, preferably (for Hobbes) a monarch. Though the Sovereign's edicts may well be arbitrary and tyrannical, Hobbes saw absolute government as the only alternative as the terrifying anarchy of the state of nature. Alternatively, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, have argued that we gain civil rights in return for accepting the obligation to respect and defend the rights of others, giving up some freedoms to do so. The central assertion of social contract approaches is that law and political order are not natural, but are instead human creations. The social contract and the political order it creates are simply the means towards an end — the benefit of the individuals involved — and legitimate only to the extent that they fulfill their part of the agreement. In Hobbes for whom government is not a party to the original contract, citizens are not obligated to submit to the government when it is too weak to act effectively [forcefully and coercively with laws, police, courts, military, etc.] to suppress factionalism and civil unrest. For other social contract theorists, citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey or change its leadership, through elections or other means, including, if necessary, violence, when the government fails to secure their natural rights (Locke) or meet the general interest (‘general will’ in Rousseau, who is more concerned with forming new governments than in overthrowing old ones).
---History:
---Classical thought:
Many point to Socrates' argument, specifically as given in Plato's ‘Crito’, for accepting his order to drink poison as representing a sophisticated argument for observing social contracts.
Social contract formulations are preserved in many of the world's oldest records. The Buddhist king Asoka was said to have argued for a broad and far reaching social contract. The Buddhist ‘vinaya’ [regulatory framework for Buddhist monks and nuns] also reflects social contracts expected of the monks, one such instance is when the people of a certain town complained about monks felling saka trees, the Buddha tells his monks that they must stop and give way to social norms.
Epicurus seems to have had a strong sense of social contract, with justice and law being rooted in mutual agreement and advantage, as evidenced by these lines, among others, from his ‘Principal Doctrines’:
- ‘Natural justice is a pledge of reciprocal benefit [‘win:win’; the ‘Golden Rule’ of ethics – ‘Treat others as you would like to be treated’], to prevent one man from harming or being harmed by another.’
- ‘Those animals which are incapable of making binding agreements with one another not to inflict nor suffer harm are without either justice or injustice; and likewise for those peoples who either could not or would not form binding agreements not to inflict nor suffer harm [for example initiating force, coercion or fraud].’
- ‘There never was such a thing as absolute justice, but only agreements made in mutual dealings among men in whatever places at various times providing against the infliction or suffering of harm.’
---Renaissance developments:
Quentin Skinner has argued that several critical modern innovations in contract theory are found in the writings from French Calvinists and Huguenots, whose work in turn was invoked by writers in the Low Countries who objected to their subjection to Spain and, later still, by Catholics in England. Among these, Francisco Suárez (1548–1617), from the ‘School of Salamanca’, might be considered as an early theorist of the social contract, theorizing natural law in an attempt to limit the divine right of absolute monarchy. All of these groups were led to articulate notions of popular sovereignty by means of a social covenant or contract: all of these arguments began with proto-’state of nature’ arguments, to the effect that the basis of politics is that everyone is by nature free of subjection to any government.
However, these arguments relied on a corporatist theory found in Roman Law, according to which ‘a populus’ can exist as a distinct legal entity. Therefore these arguments held that a group of people can join a government because it has the capacity to exercise a single will and make decisions with a single voice in the absence of sovereign authority — a notion rejected by Hobbes and later contract theorists.
---Philosophers:
---Hugo Grotius (1625):
In the early 17th century, Grotius (1583–1645) introduced the modern idea of ‘natural rights’ of individuals. Grotius postulates that each individual has natural rights that enable self-preservation and employs this idea as a basis for moral consensus in the face of religious diversity and the rise of natural science. He seeks to find a parsimonious basis for a moral beginning for society, a kind of natural law that everyone could accept. He goes so far as to say in his ‘On the Law of War and Peace’ that even if we were to concede what we cannot concede without the utmost wickedness, that there is no God, these laws would still hold. The idea was considered incendiary since it suggested that power can ultimately go back to the individuals if the political society that they have set up forfeits the purpose for which it was originally established, which is to preserve themselves. In other words, the individual people, are sovereign. Grotius says that the people are ‘sui juris’ (under their own jurisdiction). People have rights as human beings but there is a delineation of those rights because of what is possible for everyone to accept morally; everyone has to accept that people as individuals are entitled to try to preserve themselves. We should, therefore, avoid doing harm to or interfere with one another. Any breach of these rights should be punished.
---Thomas Hobbes' ‘Leviathan’ (1651):
The first modern philosopher to articulate a detailed contract theory was Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679). According to Hobbes, the lives of individuals in the state of nature were ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’, a state in which self-interest and the absence of rights and contracts prevented the 'social', or society. Life was 'anarchic' (without leadership/ the concept of sovereignty). Individuals in the state of nature were apolitical and asocial. This state of nature is followed by the social contract.
The social contract was an 'occurrence' during which individuals came together and ceded some of their individual rights so that others would cede theirs (e.g. person A gives up his/her right to kill person B if person B does the same). This resulted in the establishment of the state, a sovereign entity (like the individuals, now under its rule, used to be) which would create laws to regulate social interactions. Human life was thus no longer ‘a war of all against all’.
But the state system, which grew out of the social contract, was anarchic (without leadership). Just as the individuals in the state of nature had been sovereigns and thus guided by self-interest and the absence of rights, so states now acted in their self-interest in competition with each other. Just like the state of nature, states were thus bound to be in conflict because there was no sovereign over and above the state (i.e. more powerful) capable of imposing social-contract laws. Indeed, Hobbes' work helped to serve as a basis for the realism theories of international relations, advanced by E.H. Carr and Hans Morgenthau.
John Locke's ‘Second Treatise of Government’ (1689):
John Locke's conception of the social contract differed from Hobbes' in several fundamental ways, retaining only the central notion that persons in a state of nature would willingly come together to form a state. Locke believed that individuals in a state of nature would be bound morally, by ‘The Law of Nature’, not to harm each other in their lives or possession, but without government to defend them against those seeking to injure or enslave them, people would have no security in their rights and would live in fear. Locke argued that individuals would agree to form a state that would provide a ‘neutral judge’, acting to protect the lives, liberty, and property of those who lived within it. While Hobbes argued for near-absolute authority, Locke argued for inviolate freedom under law in his ‘Second Treatise of Government’. Locke argued that government's legitimacy comes from the citizens' delegation to the government of their right of self-defense (of ‘self-preservation’). The government thus acts as an impartial, objective agent of that self-defense, rather than each man acting as his own judge, jury, and executioner—the condition in the state of nature. In this view, government derives its ‘just powers from the consent [i.e, delegation] of the governed’. [His views were very influential in the ‘Founding Fathers’ of the United States of America and are reflected in the ‘US Declaration of Independence’, ‘Bill of Rights’ and the ‘US Constitution’.]
---Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ‘Du contrat social’ [‘The Social Contract’] (1762):
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), in his influential 1762 treatise ‘The Social Contract’, outlined a different version of social contract theory, as the foundations of political rights based on unlimited popular sovereignty. Although Rousseau wrote that the British were perhaps at the time the freest people on earth, he did not approve of their representative government. Rousseau believed that liberty was possible only where there was direct rule by the people as a whole in lawmaking, where popular sovereignty was indivisible and inalienable [unalienable]. But he also maintained that the people often did not know their ‘real will,’ and that a proper society would not occur until a great leader (‘the Legislator’) arose to change the values and customs of the people, likely through the strategic use of religion.
Rousseau's political theory differs in important ways from that of Locke and Hobbes. Rousseau's collectivism [socialism] is most evident in his development of the ‘luminous conception’ (which he credited to Diderot) of the ‘general will’. Rousseau argues a citizen cannot pursue his true interest by being an egoist but must instead subordinate himself to the law created by the citizenry acting as a collective.
‘[The social contract] can be reduced to the following terms: Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will; and in a body we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.’
Rousseau's striking phrase that man must ‘be forced to be free’ should be understood this way: since the indivisible and inalienable [unalienable] popular sovereignty decides what is good for the whole, then if an individual lapses back into his ordinary egoism and disobeys the leadership, he will be forced to listen to what they decided as a member of the collectivity (i.e. as citizens). Thus, the law, inasmuch as it is created by the people acting as a body, is not a limitation of individual freedom, but its expression [or really an expression of the majority’s freedom and opinion]. Thus, enforcement of law, including criminal law, is not a restriction on individual liberty, as the individual, as a citizen, explicitly agreed to be constrained if, as a private individual, he did not respect his own will as formulated in the general will. Because laws represent the restraints of civil freedom, they represent the leap made from humans in the state of nature into civil society. In this sense, the law is a civilizing force, and therefore Rousseau believed that the laws that govern a people helped to mold their character.
---Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's individualist social contract (1851):
While Rousseau's social contract is based on popular sovereignty and not on individual sovereignty, there are other theories espoused by individualists, libertarians and anarchists, which do not involve agreeing to anything more than ‘negative rights’ [the right to not hurt another physically or financially, rather than ‘positive rights’ which are the obligation to not just not hurt another physically or financially but to have to also forego some of their own physical or financial resources, time, etc. - self-sacrifice, to physically or financially help another – forced rather than voluntary altruism] and creates only a limited state, if any.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) advocated a conception of social contract which didn't involve an individual surrendering sovereignty to others. According to him, the social contract was not between individuals and the state, but rather between individuals themselves refraining from coercing or governing each other, each one maintaining complete sovereignty upon oneself:
‘What really is the Social Contract? An agreement of the citizen with the government? No, that would mean but the continuation of [Rousseau’s] idea. The social contract is an agreement of man with man; an agreement from which must result what we call society. In this, the notion of commutative justice [which specifies how individuals should be treated in a given class of actions and transactions – focuses on equal treatment], first brought forward by the primitive fact of exchange, …is substituted for that of distributive justice [which specifies how things such as rights, goods and well-being should be distributed among a class of people – focuses on equal outcome]… Translating these words, contract, commutative justice, which are the language of the law, into the language of business, and you have commerce, that is to say, in its highest significance, the act by which man and man declare themselves essentially producers, and abdicate all pretension to govern each other.’ —Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, ‘General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century’ (1851)
---John Rawls' ‘Theory of Justice’ (1971):
John Rawls (1921–2002) proposed a contractarian approach that has a decidedly Kantian flavour, in ‘A Theory of Justice’ (1971), whereby rational people in a hypothetical ‘original position‘, setting aside their individual preferences and capacities under a ‘veil of ignorance‘, would agree to certain general principles of justice and legal organization. This idea is also used as a game-theoretical formalization of the notion of fairness [i.e. If you didn’t know if you would be born wealthy, talented or beautiful or none of these how would you feel the society should be set up so that you would feel best about taking the lottery of being born into that society – ie. equal treatment or equal outcome, personal freedom and the chance for great success, competency or failure - or personal security and little personal choice, having to accept what someone or some organisation gave you, whether it is what you liked or not?]
---David Gauthier's ‘Morals By Agreement’ (1986):
David Gauthier ‘neo-Hobbesian’ theory argues that cooperation between two independent and self-interested parties is indeed possible; especially when it comes to understanding morality and politics. Gauthier notably points out the advantages of cooperation between two parties when it comes to the challenge of the prisoner's dilemma. He proposes that if both parties were to stick by the original agreed-upon arrangement and morals outlined by the contract that they both would experience an optimal result. In his model for the social contract, trust, rationality and self-interest are all factors that keep each party honest and dissuade them from breaking the rules.
---Philip Pettit's ‘Republicanism’ (1997):
Philip Pettit (b. 1945) has argued, in ‘Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government’ (1997), that the theory of social contract, classically based on the consent of the governed, should be modified. Instead of arguing for explicit consent, which can always be manufactured, Pettit argues that the absence of an effective rebellion against the contract is the only legitimacy of it.
---Critical theories:
---Consent of the governed:
An early critic of social contract theory was Rousseau's friend, the philosopher David Hume, who in 1742 published an essay ‘Of Civil Liberty’, in whose second part, entitled, ‘Of the Original Contract ‘, he stressed that the concept of a ‘social contract’ was a convenient fiction:
‘As no party, in the present age can well support itself without a philosophical or speculative system of principles annexed to its political or practical one; we accordingly find that each of the factions into which this nation is divided has reared up a fabric of the former kind, in order to protect and cover that scheme of actions which it pursues. . . . The one party [defenders of the absolute and divine right of kings, or Tories], by tracing up government to the DEITY, endeavor to render it so sacred and inviolate that it must be little less than sacrilege, however tyrannical it may become, to touch or invade it in the smallest article. The other party [the Whigs, or believers in constitutional monarchy], by founding government altogether on the consent of the PEOPLE suppose that there is a kind of original contract by which the subjects have tacitly reserved the power of resisting their sovereign, whenever they find themselves aggrieved by that authority with which they have for certain purposes voluntarily entrusted him.’ —David Hume, ‘On Civil Liberty’ [II.XII.1]
Hume argued that consent of the governed was the ideal foundation on which a government could rest, but that it had not actually occurred this way in general.
‘My intention here is not to exclude the consent of the people from being one just foundation of government where it has place. It is surely the best and most sacred of any. I only contend that it has very seldom had place in any degree and never almost in its full extent. And that therefore some other foundation of government must also be admitted.’
——David Hume, ‘On Civil Liberty’ [II.XII.20]
---Natural law and constitutionalism:
Legal scholar Randy Barnett has argued that, while presence in the territory of a society may be necessary for consent, it is not consent to any rules the society might make regardless of their content. A second condition of consent is that the rules be consistent with underlying principles of justice and the protection of natural and social rights, and have procedures for effective protection of those rights (or liberties). This has also been discussed by O.A. Brownson, who argued that, in a sense, three ‘constitutions’ are involved: first the ‘constitution of nature’ that includes all of what the Founders called ‘natural law‘; second the ‘constitution of society’, an unwritten and commonly understood set of rules for the society formed by a social contract before it establishes a government; by which it does establish the third, a ‘constitution of government’. To consent, a necessary condition is that the rules be constitutional in that sense.
---Tacit consent:
The theory of an implicit social contract holds that by remaining in the territory controlled by some society, which usually has a government, people give consent to join that society and be governed by its government, if any. This consent is what gives legitimacy to such government.
However, other writers have argued that consent to join the society is not necessarily consent to its government. For that, the government must be according to a constitution of government that is consistent with the superior unwritten constitutions of nature and society.
---Voluntarism:
According to the will theory of contract, a contract is not presumed valid unless all parties agree to it voluntarily, either tacitly or explicitly, without coercion. Lysander Spooner, a 19th century lawyer and staunch supporter of a right of contract between individuals, in his essay ‘No Treason’, argues that a supposed social contract cannot be used to justify governmental actions such as taxation, because government will initiate force against anyone who does not wish to enter into such a contract. As a result, he maintains that such an agreement is not voluntary and therefore cannot be considered a legitimate contract at all.
Modern Anglo-American law, like European civil law, is based on a will theory of contract, according to which all terms of a contract are binding on the parties because they chose those terms for themselves. This was less true when Hobbes wrote ‘Leviathan’; then, more importance was attached to consideration, meaning a mutual exchange of benefits necessary to the formation of a valid contract, and most contracts had implicit terms that arose from the nature of the contractual relationship rather than from the choices made by the parties. Accordingly, it has been argued that social contract theory is more consistent with the contract law of the time of Hobbes and Locke than with the contract law of our time, and that features in the social contract which seem anomalous to us, such as the belief that we are bound by a contract formulated by our distant ancestors, would not have seemed as strange to Hobbes' contemporaries as they do to us." - Wikipedia.orgRetrieved 25th June, 2012. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract ]
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[Quote No.42942] Need Area: Friends > General "This is the threat to our lives. We all face it. We all operate in our society in relation to a [social, economic, political, etc.] system. Now is the [social, economic, political, etc.] system going to eat you up and relieve you of your humanity or are you going to be able to use the [social, economic, political, etc.] system to human purposes? ... If the person doesn't listen to the demands of his own spiritual and heart life and insists on a certain program, you're going to have a schizophrenic crack-up. The person has put himself off center. He has aligned himself with a programmatic life and it's not the one the body's interested in at all. And the world's full of people who have stopped listening to themselves [and their unique core concerns as expressed by their individual needs and dreams]." - Joseph Campbell(1904 – 1987), American professor, writer, and orator best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's seminal work, ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ (1949), discusses what Campbell called the monomyth — the cycle of the journey of the hero — a term that he borrowed directly from Joyce's ‘Finnegans Wake’. His work, ‘The Masks of God’, written between 1962 and 1968, in four-volumes covers mythology from around the world, from ancient to modern. Where ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ focused on the commonality of mythology (the ‘elementary ideas’), ‘The Masks of God’ books focus upon historical and cultural variations the monomyth takes on (the ‘folk ideas’). In other words, where ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ draws perhaps more from psychology, ‘The Masks of God’ books draw more from anthropology and history. The four volumes of ‘The Masks of God’ are as follows: ‘Primitive Mythology’, ‘Oriental Mythology’, ‘Occidental Mythology’, and ‘Creative Mythology’. At the time of his death, Campbell was in the midst of working upon a large-format, lavishly illustrated series entitled ‘Historical Atlas of World Mythology’. This series was to build on Campbell’s idea, first presented in ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, that myth evolves over time through four stages: -1- ‘The Way of the Animal Powers’—the myths of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers which focus on shamanism and animal totems; -2- ‘The Way of the Seeded Earth’—the myths of Neolithic, agrarian cultures which focus upon a mother goddess and associated fertility rites; -3- ‘The Way of the Celestial Lights’—the myths of Bronze Age city-states with pantheons of gods ruling from the heavens, led by a masculine god-king, and; -4- ‘The Way of Man’—religion and philosophy as it developed after the Axial Age (c. 6th century BC), in which the mythic imagery of previous eras was made consciously metaphorical, reinterpreted as referring to psycho-spiritual, not literal-historical, matters. This transition is evident in the East in Buddhism, Vedanta, and philosophical Taoism; and in the West in the Mystery Cults, Platonism, Christianity and Gnosticism. Other well-known works of his are ‘Myths to Live By’ (1972), ‘Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation’ (2004) and ‘A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living’ (1991). Quote from ‘The Power of Myth’ (1988) which later in 2001, under the same name as the book, became a PBS television series with Bill Moyers; Episode 1, Chapter 12.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42945] Need Area: Friends > General "Our life evokes our character [and those of others] and you find out more about yourself [and others] as you go on." - Joseph Campbell(1904 – 1987), American professor, writer, and orator best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's seminal work, ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ (1949), discusses what Campbell called the monomyth — the cycle of the journey of the hero — a term that he borrowed directly from Joyce's ‘Finnegans Wake’. His work, ‘The Masks of God’, written between 1962 and 1968, in four-volumes covers mythology from around the world, from ancient to modern. Where ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ focused on the commonality of mythology (the ‘elementary ideas’), ‘The Masks of God’ books focus upon historical and cultural variations the monomyth takes on (the ‘folk ideas’). In other words, where ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ draws perhaps more from psychology, ‘The Masks of God’ books draw more from anthropology and history. The four volumes of ‘The Masks of God’ are as follows: ‘Primitive Mythology’, ‘Oriental Mythology’, ‘Occidental Mythology’, and ‘Creative Mythology’. At the time of his death, Campbell was in the midst of working upon a large-format, lavishly illustrated series entitled ‘Historical Atlas of World Mythology’. This series was to build on Campbell’s idea, first presented in ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, that myth evolves over time through four stages: -1- ‘The Way of the Animal Powers’—the myths of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers which focus on shamanism and animal totems; -2- ‘The Way of the Seeded Earth’—the myths of Neolithic, agrarian cultures which focus upon a mother goddess and associated fertility rites; -3- ‘The Way of the Celestial Lights’—the myths of Bronze Age city-states with pantheons of gods ruling from the heavens, led by a masculine god-king, and; -4- ‘The Way of Man’—religion and philosophy as it developed after the Axial Age (c. 6th century BC), in which the mythic imagery of previous eras was made consciously metaphorical, reinterpreted as referring to psycho-spiritual, not literal-historical, matters. This transition is evident in the East in Buddhism, Vedanta, and philosophical Taoism; and in the West in the Mystery Cults, Platonism, Christianity and Gnosticism. Other well-known works of his are ‘Myths to Live By’ (1972), ‘Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation’ (2004) and ‘A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living’ (1991). Quote from ‘The Power of Myth’ (1988) which later in 2001, under the same name as the book, became a PBS television series with Bill Moyers; Episode 1, Chapter 12.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42957] Need Area: Friends > General "[Moyers: Unlike heroes such as Prometheus or Jesus, we're not going on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves.
Campbell:] But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there's no doubt about it. The world without spirit is a wasteland. People have the notion of saving the world by shifting things [i.e. money, property, etc] around, changing the rules [philosophy, government, laws, etc], and who's on top [leaders in politics, business, etc], and so forth. No, no! Any world is a valid world if it's alive [with people pursuing their bliss in freedom from force, coercion and fraud]. The thing to do is to bring life [honest, peaceful bliss] to it, and the only way to do that is to find in your own case where the life [honest, peaceful bliss for you] is and become alive yourself! [Set an example. Like Mahatma Gandhi said, 'We must be the change we wish to see in the world!']" - Joseph Campbell(1904 – 1987), American professor, writer, and orator best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's seminal work, ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ (1949), discusses what Campbell called the monomyth — the cycle of the journey of the hero — a term that he borrowed directly from Joyce's ‘Finnegans Wake’. His work, ‘The Masks of God’, written between 1962 and 1968, in four-volumes covers mythology from around the world, from ancient to modern. Where ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ focused on the commonality of mythology (the ‘elementary ideas’), ‘The Masks of God’ books focus upon historical and cultural variations the monomyth takes on (the ‘folk ideas’). In other words, where ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ draws perhaps more from psychology, ‘The Masks of God’ books draw more from anthropology and history. The four volumes of ‘The Masks of God’ are as follows: ‘Primitive Mythology’, ‘Oriental Mythology’, ‘Occidental Mythology’, and ‘Creative Mythology’. At the time of his death, Campbell was in the midst of working upon a large-format, lavishly illustrated series entitled ‘Historical Atlas of World Mythology’. This series was to build on Campbell’s idea, first presented in ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, that myth evolves over time through four stages: -1- ‘The Way of the Animal Powers’—the myths of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers which focus on shamanism and animal totems; -2- ‘The Way of the Seeded Earth’—the myths of Neolithic, agrarian cultures which focus upon a mother goddess and associated fertility rites; -3- ‘The Way of the Celestial Lights’—the myths of Bronze Age city-states with pantheons of gods ruling from the heavens, led by a masculine god-king, and; -4- ‘The Way of Man’—religion and philosophy as it developed after the Axial Age (c. 6th century BC), in which the mythic imagery of previous eras was made consciously metaphorical, reinterpreted as referring to psycho-spiritual, not literal-historical, matters. This transition is evident in the East in Buddhism, Vedanta, and philosophical Taoism; and in the West in the Mystery Cults, Platonism, Christianity and Gnosticism. Other well-known works of his are ‘Myths to Live By’ (1972), ‘Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation’ (2004) and ‘A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living’ (1991). Quote from ‘The Power of Myth’ (1988) which later in 2001, under the same name as the book, became a PBS television series with Bill Moyers; p.183.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42958] Need Area: Friends > General "The image of the cosmos must change with the development of the mind and knowledge; otherwise, the mythic statement is lost, and man becomes dissociated from the very basis of his own religious [spiritual] experience. Doubt comes in, and so forth. You must remember: all of the great traditions [customs and mythology], and little traditions, in their own time were scientifically correct. That is to say, they were correct in terms of the scientific image of that age. So there must be a scientifically validated image. Now you know what has happened: our scientific field has separated itself from the religious field, or vice-versa. … This divorce this is a fatal thing, and a very unfortunate thing, and a totally unnecessary thing. [Our new understandings in science neither prove nor disprove God. It is still as it has always been – a matter of private, personal faith. To dismiss God because we now understand the world more scientifically than our ancestors did, as reported in their and now our holy books, is like, ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’. Our understanding of what we mean by God is simply changing. For some they have turned away completely, while others have found a new way to understand in faith and tolerance.]" - Joseph Campbell(1904 – 1987), American professor, writer, and orator best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's seminal work, ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ (1949), discusses what Campbell called the monomyth — the cycle of the journey of the hero — a term that he borrowed directly from Joyce's ‘Finnegans Wake’. His work, ‘The Masks of God’, written between 1962 and 1968, in four-volumes covers mythology from around the world, from ancient to modern. Where ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ focused on the commonality of mythology (the ‘elementary ideas’), ‘The Masks of God’ books focus upon historical and cultural variations the monomyth takes on (the ‘folk ideas’). In other words, where ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ draws perhaps more from psychology, ‘The Masks of God’ books draw more from anthropology and history. The four volumes of ‘The Masks of God’ are as follows: ‘Primitive Mythology’, ‘Oriental Mythology’, ‘Occidental Mythology’, and ‘Creative Mythology’. At the time of his death, Campbell was in the midst of working upon a large-format, lavishly illustrated series entitled ‘Historical Atlas of World Mythology’. This series was to build on Campbell’s idea, first presented in ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, that myth evolves over time through four stages: -1- ‘The Way of the Animal Powers’—the myths of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers which focus on shamanism and animal totems; -2- ‘The Way of the Seeded Earth’—the myths of Neolithic, agrarian cultures which focus upon a mother goddess and associated fertility rites; -3- ‘The Way of the Celestial Lights’—the myths of Bronze Age city-states with pantheons of gods ruling from the heavens, led by a masculine god-king, and; -4- ‘The Way of Man’—religion and philosophy as it developed after the Axial Age (c. 6th century BC), in which the mythic imagery of previous eras was made consciously metaphorical, reinterpreted as referring to psycho-spiritual, not literal-historical, matters. This transition is evident in the East in Buddhism, Vedanta, and philosophical Taoism; and in the West in the Mystery Cults, Platonism, Christianity and Gnosticism. Other well-known works of his are ‘Myths to Live By’ (1972), ‘Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation’ (2004) and ‘A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living’ (1991). Quote from ‘The Power of Myth’ (1988) which later in 2001, under the same name as the book, became a PBS television series with Bill Moyers; ‘Mythology and the Individual’, (1997), Lecture 1A, 13:45.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.42959] Need Area: Friends > General "All cultures ... have grown out of myths. They are founded on myths. What these myths have given has been inspiration for aspiration. The economic interpretation of history is for the birds. Economics is itself a function of aspiration. It’s what people aspire to that creates the field in which economics works." - Joseph Campbell(1904 – 1987), American professor, writer, and orator best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's seminal work, ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ (1949), discusses what Campbell called the monomyth — the cycle of the journey of the hero — a term that he borrowed directly from Joyce's ‘Finnegans Wake’. His work, ‘The Masks of God’, written between 1962 and 1968, in four-volumes covers mythology from around the world, from ancient to modern. Where ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ focused on the commonality of mythology (the ‘elementary ideas’), ‘The Masks of God’ books focus upon historical and cultural variations the monomyth takes on (the ‘folk ideas’). In other words, where ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ draws perhaps more from psychology, ‘The Masks of God’ books draw more from anthropology and history. The four volumes of ‘The Masks of God’ are as follows: ‘Primitive Mythology’, ‘Oriental Mythology’, ‘Occidental Mythology’, and ‘Creative Mythology’. At the time of his death, Campbell was in the midst of working upon a large-format, lavishly illustrated series entitled ‘Historical Atlas of World Mythology’. This series was to build on Campbell’s idea, first presented in ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, that myth evolves over time through four stages: -1- ‘The Way of the Animal Powers’—the myths of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers which focus on shamanism and animal totems; -2- ‘The Way of the Seeded Earth’—the myths of Neolithic, agrarian cultures which focus upon a mother goddess and associated fertility rites; -3- ‘The Way of the Celestial Lights’—the myths of Bronze Age city-states with pantheons of gods ruling from the heavens, led by a masculine god-king, and; -4- ‘The Way of Man’—religion and philosophy as it developed after the Axial Age (c. 6th century BC), in which the mythic imagery of previous eras was made consciously metaphorical, reinterpreted as referring to psycho-spiritual, not literal-historical, matters. This transition is evident in the East in Buddhism, Vedanta, and philosophical Taoism; and in the West in the Mystery Cults, Platonism, Christianity and Gnosticism. Other well-known works of his are ‘Myths to Live By’ (1972), ‘Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation’ (2004) and ‘A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living’ (1991). Quote from ‘The Power of Myth’ (1988) which later in 2001, under the same name as the book, became a PBS television series with Bill Moyers; ‘Mythology and the Individual’, (1997), Lecture 1B, 8:20.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.56865] Need Area: Friends > General "Control over natural resources has been one of the key
determinants of wars [regardless of whether this has been publically declared to the citizenry, who have usually been given other 'reasons', in political propaganda, to 'win their hearts and minds' and gain their support - including needs related to political ideology, treaties, humanitarian necessities, and 'black flag' self-defence to name just a few].1
[1. In his classic, 'A Study of War', Wright (1942) devotes a chapter to the relationship between war and resources. Another classic reference, 'Statistics of Deadly Quarrels' by Richardson (1960), extensively discusses economic causes of war, including the control of 'sources of essential commodities.' A large literature pioneered by Homer-Dixon (1991, 1999) argues that scarcity of various environmental resources is a major cause of conflict and resource wars (see Toset, Gleditsch, and Hegre 2000, for empirical evidence). More recently, Findlay and O’Rourke (2007) document the historical relationship between international trade and military conflict.]
An early study of causes of modern wars during the 1878 to 1918 period by Bakeless (1921) argued that of the 20 major wars had significant economic causes, often related
to conflict over resources. He emphasized 'the rise of industrialism has led to the struggle for ... raw materials.' For example, in the War of the Pacific (1879–1884), Chile fought against a defensive alliance of Bolivia and Peru for the control of guano mineral deposits. The war was precipitated by the rise in the value of the deposits due to their extensive use in agriculture. Chile's victory increased the size of its treasury by 900%. Westing (1986) argues that many of the wars in the twentieth century had an important resource dimension. As examples he cites the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962), the Six Day War (1967), and the Chaco War (1932–1935). More recently, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was a result of the dispute over the Rumaila oil field. In 'Resource Wars' (2001), Klare argues that following the end of the Cold War, control of valuable natural resources has become increasingly important, and these resources will become a primary motivation for wars in the future. The famous Carter Doctrine, which states 'Any attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf ... will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force,' is just one facet of this perspective. " - Daron Acemoglu, Mikhail Golosov, Aleh Tsyvinski and Pierre YaredQuote from the article 'A Dynamic Theory Of Resource Wars', published in 'The Quarterly Journal of Economics' (2012) 127, 283–331. doi:10.1093/qje/qjr048. Advance Access publication on January 6, 2012. [http://economics.mit.edu/files/8041 and http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-25/why-we%E2%80%99re-sliding-towards-world-war ]
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[Quote No.43009] Need Area: Friends > General "Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings. [It is strange that citizens, and other politicians themselves, don't insist that the same, or better yet even more stringent, rules against fraud and for fair dealing, essential to peaceful, civil life and enforced by law, are required of and enforced upon our public servants, especially our politicians and leaders. Their behavior is hypocritical and a pernicious double standard that sets a terrible role model for the nation's youth, which encourages duplicity, subterfuge and corruption and our disgust for them, when in fact, if they were legally forced to behave honestly and honorably, as they rightly insist that the rest of us do, there would be few more well-respected positions in society and many more willing, decent, capable applicants.]" - Hannah ArendtAuthor's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.43068] Need Area: Friends > General "The world is divided into two kinds of people: the wise and the otherwise." - Sivaya Subramuniyaswami(1927–2001), also known as Gurudeva Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami by his followers, was born in Oakland, California, on January 5, 1927, and adopted 'Saivism' as a young man. He traveled to India and Sri Lanka where he received initiation from Yogaswami of Jaffna in 1949. In the 1970s he established a Hindu monastery in Kauai, Hawaii and founded the magazine 'Hinduism Today'.
He was one of Saivism's Gurus, the founder and leader of the Saiva Siddhanta Church. Subramuniyaswami was lauded by Klaus Klostermaier as 'the single-most advocate of Hinduism outside India'.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.43073] Need Area: Friends > General "All men [and women] are my teachers. Some teach me what to do, some teach me what not to do!" - Sivaya Subramuniyaswami(1927–2001), also known as Gurudeva Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami by his followers, was born in Oakland, California, on January 5, 1927, and adopted 'Saivism' as a young man. He traveled to India and Sri Lanka where he received initiation from Yogaswami of Jaffna in 1949. In the 1970s he established a Hindu monastery in Kauai, Hawaii and founded the magazine 'Hinduism Today'. He was one of Saivism's Gurus, the founder and leader of the Saiva Siddhanta Church. Subramuniyaswami was lauded by Klaus Klostermaier as 'the single-most advocate of Hinduism outside India'. [http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3872 ]
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[Quote No.43077] Need Area: Friends > General "By changing our desires, we change our life. By changing our life, we change those around us [and we change society]." - Sivaya Subramuniyaswami(1927–2001), also known as Gurudeva Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami by his followers, was born in Oakland, California, on January 5, 1927, and adopted 'Saivism' as a young man. He traveled to India and Sri Lanka where he received initiation from Yogaswami of Jaffna in 1949. In the 1970s he established a Hindu monastery in Kauai, Hawaii and founded the magazine 'Hinduism Today'. He was one of Saivism's Gurus, the founder and leader of the Saiva Siddhanta Church. Subramuniyaswami was lauded by Klaus Klostermaier as 'the single-most advocate of Hinduism outside India'. [http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3872 ]
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[Quote No.43079] Need Area: Friends > General "Character is ‘care actor,’ the ability to act with care!" - Sivaya Subramuniyaswami(1927–2001), also known as Gurudeva Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami by his followers, was born in Oakland, California, on January 5, 1927, and adopted 'Saivism' as a young man. He traveled to India and Sri Lanka where he received initiation from Yogaswami of Jaffna in 1949. In the 1970s he established a Hindu monastery in Kauai, Hawaii and founded the magazine 'Hinduism Today'. He was one of Saivism's Gurus, the founder and leader of the Saiva Siddhanta Church. Subramuniyaswami was lauded by Klaus Klostermaier as 'the single-most advocate of Hinduism outside India'. [http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3872 ]
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[Quote No.43084] Need Area: Friends > General "[In regard to freedom, equal treatment, empathy, sympathy and consideration:] I've always been a supporter of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. [If you do mind, it does matter.]" - Sivaya Subramuniyaswami(1927–2001), also known as Gurudeva Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami by his followers, was born in Oakland, California, on January 5, 1927, and adopted 'Saivism' as a young man. He traveled to India and Sri Lanka where he received initiation from Yogaswami of Jaffna in 1949. In the 1970s he established a Hindu monastery in Kauai, Hawaii and founded the magazine 'Hinduism Today'. He was one of Saivism's Gurus, the founder and leader of the Saiva Siddhanta Church. Subramuniyaswami was lauded by Klaus Klostermaier as 'the single-most advocate of Hinduism outside India'. [http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3872 ]
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